FIRAAQ (a word that means both separation and a quest in urdu) starts with a chilling scene, in which two men dig a massgrave for tens of dead bodies, which keep arriving by truck. Suddenly a hindu female appears from among the other bodies, to which a muslim digger reacts painfully and angrily. With the next scene begins a 24-hour overview of the Indian Gujarat region barely one month after violent clashes between hindus and muslims. Destinies of different people develop: a muslim family which returns to their home to find it burned; a hindu-muslim mixed marriage couple who decide to leave after their store is pillaged; a hindu woman who is haunted by her inactivity towards a muslim woman in distress; a musician who lives with the help of his assistant in a fantasy world where hindus and muslims live together in friendship; an orphan who roams the streets looking for her father, etc.

The main theme of FIRAAQ is tolerance - towards people of different ethnic origin and religion. The director has stated that the film is fictional work based on a thousand stories. Pain of loss and fear brought on by estrangement and misunderstanding between people with different backgrounds living side by side. Some viewers might draw parallels with relations between ethnic Estonians and Russians in Estonia, which have not turned out as tragic. FIRAAQ is the directorial debute of actress Nandita Das and as such it is a triumph. She has masterly connected different destinies, giving at the same time a great overview of the tragic situation of the region. Here and there one might observe onesidedness, as from the beginning the filmmakers seem to be on the side of muslims, but this does not mean that the film is in an way propagandistic, on the contrary - the film tries to give an empathic look to diverse fates.